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Wednesday, September 21, 2011

So this week I am sick, ironically I got sick on the leg back up from Cancun/my brother's wedding. Word of caution, if you can avoid transferring planes in Mexico City, its a pain in the butt! Fortunately, though my throat isn't hurting and the phlegm is under control so that I am not gagging on it. All things that made Monday quite unbearable. I am not sure what I got, it's feeling more like a cold these days but I am okay with that as I am not letting it bog me down too much. Though last night I feared for my classes but God gave me strength today to attend them despite getting like 2.5 hrs of sleep. My voice is also coming back, still raspy but atleast its not completely gone. Something I am very thankful for since I need to practice speaking for my language classes. Then I read this quote by Paulo Coelho, author of the Alchemist:

A blind man was begging on the road to Mecca, when a pious
Moslem came over and asked whether the people were giving generously – as the
Koran commands. The man showed him his little tin, which was almost empty. The
traveler said:

- Let me write something on the card around your neck.

Hours later, the traveler returned. The beggar was
surprised, for he had received a large amount of money.

- What did you write on the card? – he asked.

- All I wrote was: Today is a beautiful spring day, the sun
is shining, and I am blind.

At first I didn't understand the message, then I scrolled down and someone had posted this youtube video with the same message:

That's when I understood what it was saying and I thought how true it is we are all blind sometimes to the blessings we have. I wonder myself how many times I have walked by and ignored those in need or how often we don't think about those lovely spring days because so much else is pressing on our minds. I am especially thankful for those writers like Paulo that can express the thoughts that I am thinking about but can never articulate well enough. It is why I like languages, they allow me to see things differently than otherwise I would have by simply using different words.